Anyone use The Solar Panel Store? Need advice

[Karmagl]

Last question, and seriously thank you for helping me to grasp this better. Online it says the average household uses around 12,000kwh per month. I don't think we will be that high but I used that number and divided it by 30 days, which left me with 400kwh. 400/5.1 is 78. Does that mean I would need 78 batteries? I know thats not right, just not sure how to figure that out. Any webites that help you with estimated usage?

never mind, I see that is average per year, not per month

 

[Karmagl]

So if I did things correctly, I could purchase the e0000 and add 4 batteries, giving me a total of 8 batteries or 40kwh and that should be enough to run a house.

 

[Karmagl]

Can't thank you enough. With all my math finally correct I will save $10,000 going with the e0000 vs. the Battle Born.

 

[Texican]

I have 12kw of panels and 6 eg4 batts or 30kwh of batts
my electric water heater is left on the grid and have propane dryer and stove.
I have 2 mini splits for a/c and heat but usually only run 1 at a time.
we do have grid for backup
overcast skies are a killer, you will need a backup generator if you have no grid avbl

 

[Doggydogworld]

never mind, I see that is average per year, not per month

Yeah, I always like to cross check by figuring the cost at 10 cents/kWh (most people pay more, but some pay less and 10 cents is a nice, round number). 12,000 kWh is $1200, obviously too high to be the average monthly electric bill in the US (unless this inflation lasts a few more years, ha).

Have you done an energy audit? It's a lot of work, but is the best way to size your system. You'll have to estimate since you aren't in the house yet. You might be able to use actual measurements from your previous house or friends/family with similar houses. A properly sized system not only produces enough energy (kWh) each day, it also produces enough power (kW) to handle your instantaneous peak load when a bunch of devices run at the same time.

Then consider seasonal variation. Summer A/C is usually the dominant electricity consumer in the south. In the north it's usually winter heat pump (if you go that route). Solar panel production also varies seasonally. You can use PVWatts for your exact location to see the December vs. June difference, plus lots of other useful stuff.

The final sizing step is figuring out how to handle long, cloudy stretches.

Where are you located? Will your house be off-grid? Will it heat with a heat pump or natural gas/propane/etc.? These are the big questions. Fortunately the Signature Solar kit you selected is expandable, so you don't have to get every calculation perfect today.

 

[Karmagl]

Yeah, I always like to cross check by figuring the cost at 10 cents/kWh (most people pay more, but some pay less and 10 cents is a nice, round number). 12,000 kWh is $1200, obviously too high to be the average monthly electric bill in the US (unless this inflation lasts a few more years, ha).

Have you done an energy audit? It's a lot of work, but is the best way to size your system. You'll have to estimate since you aren't in the house yet. You might be able to use actual measurements from your previous house or friends/family with similar houses. A properly sized system not only produces enough energy (kWh) each day, it also produces enough power (kW) to handle your instantaneous peak load when a bunch of devices run at the same time.

Then consider seasonal variation. Summer A/C is usually the dominant electricity consumer in the south. In the north it's usually winter heat pump (if you go that route). Solar panel production also varies seasonally. You can use PVWatts for your exact location to see the December vs. June difference, plus lots of other useful stuff.

The final sizing step is figuring out how to handle long, cloudy stretches.

Where are you located? Will your house be off-grid? Will it heat with a heat pump or natural gas/propane/etc.? These are the big questions. Fortunately the Signature Solar kit you selected is expandable, so you don't have to get every calculation perfect today.

I am at 8000 elevation on top of a mountain in Colorado so full sun is almost year round. Being on a mountain, I also get quite a bit of wind and would like to add a turbine but I haven't even begun to wrap my head around that yet. Trying to figure out solar first. Right now we are living off 2 giant generators and paying for fuel, so I'm excited to get the system set up. We don't use AC up here, will have a wood boiler with infloor heat and a back up propane boiler. Thanks for the link, I'm going to do the energy audit to get a better idea of what I need.

 

[Karmagl]

I have 12kw of panels and 6 eg4 batts or 30kwh of batts
my electric water heater is left on the grid and have propane dryer and stove.
I have 2 mini splits for a/c and heat but usually only run 1 at a time.
we do have grid for backup
overcast skies are a killer, you will need a backup generator if you have no grid avbl

How do I figure out how many kw of panels I am getting?
30 x Boviet 400 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panels (up to 12000 Watts PV!) - 25 Year Power Warranty
Does it usually handle your heat and AC or do you default to the grid a lot?

 

[Texican]

I have 11kw grid tie and 12kw off grid and live in N Texas

we like it cold in the house, set the temp at 66 in the summer. also have 2 outbuildings that are on the grid/gridtie system.
one bldg is the workshop where the solar systems live and also 5 rescue/stray cats that adopted us, cant let them outside due to coyotes
that workshop has air set on 72
second outbuilding is a prepper type food storage bldg and is set on 75

the house is all off grid except for electric water heater which is on grid, using propane stove/dryer

with all that said

our grid bills look like this
july....bought 784 kwh/sent them 454 kwh avg daily high temp was 103
aug bought 900 kwh/ sent them 411 kwh temp about 95
oct bought 324 kwh, sent them 865
sep bought 528 kwh sent them 696 kwh

yesterday high about 60, batts were charged before noon and grid tie was spinning backwards over 7kw per hour all afternoon

I get no benefit on the grid bill after sending them the amount we will buy/use at night,
so yesterday after the batts were charged the off grid was wasting 6kw per hour in not needed production and then gridtie was wasting 7kw per hour during the afternoon

on cloudy days I use any excess from the gridtie system to help the off grid batts charge by using either SUB or UTILITY FIRST mode on the off grid inverters.

there are cloudy days when I have to use all grid power in the house when solar is just not happening, maybe a couple days per month so far

 

[Horsefly]

I am at 8000 elevation on top of a mountain in Colorado so full sun is almost year round. Being on a mountain, I also get quite a bit of wind and would like to add a turbine but I haven't even begun to wrap my head around that yet. Trying to figure out solar first. Right now we are living off 2 giant generators and paying for fuel, so I'm excited to get the system set up. We don't use AC up here, will have a wood boiler with infloor heat and a back up propane boiler. Thanks for the link, I'm going to do the energy audit to get a better idea of what I need.

The main system that I built is in our cabin at just under 9,000 ft in Colorado. Sun is not a problem. We are on a high plateau, so we don't get as much wind as you might. Even if we did, I don't think I would incorporate wind. It's noisy, and prone to breaking due to all the moving parts. Much better to use solar, and just invest a little extra for more panels and storage.

If you have no need for AC and have wood/propane for heat, you are pretty well set for solar, as you don't have loads that make it too hard. You didn't describe your cooking stove, but I assume that is (or can be) propane as well.

I'm curious where you are. In Colorado, "on top of a mountain" and "8,000 ft elevation" don't usually go together. I think the mountains start at around 10k ft!

 

[LeoThomson]

If you want to go off-grid, the first step is to insulate.

Get way more solar than what you need, solar panels are relatively cheap compared to batteries.

Use a thick concrete floor, insulated from the ground with in-floor heating, fed directly from the solar panels, it will hold the heat for a few days and concrete is cheaper than batteries. (just use a correct length and gauge wire for the in concrete "heating element", feed the hot water cylinder(s) directly from solar.

And be ready to expand if needed. That means have the wires in place so you do not need to dig up and replace the old wires if they are too small, the worst case is that you don't have to expand, but you will run more efficiently.

It can be done, just think outside of the box a little, be innovative on how you store the energy. You can even use a heat pump with the insulated thick concrete floor, but heating it directly from solar might be cheaper and low maintenance as there are no moving parts.

 

[Doggydogworld]

I am at 8000 elevation on top of a mountain in Colorado so full sun is almost year round. Being on a mountain, I also get quite a bit of wind and would like to add a turbine but I haven't even begun to wrap my head around that yet. Trying to figure out solar first. Right now we are living off 2 giant generators and paying for fuel, so I'm excited to get the system set up. We don't use AC up here, will have a wood boiler with infloor heat and a back up propane boiler. Thanks for the link, I'm going to do the energy audit to get a better idea of what I need.

I ran PVWatts for Aspen, also at 8000 ft. Using the defaults your 12 kW of panels would produce 1027 kWh in December and 2015 kWh in May. With ground mount you can change tilt to 60-70 degrees in winter and boost December production to 1300+ kWh. I only use 500-600 kWh in non-A/C months, in a very large house with all electric appliances. It's that low thanks to gas heat and hot water.

With wood / propane heat you may not need anywhere near 12 kW. And with a backup generator you can afford to start small. I'd try 6 kW of panels. I'd probably keep the four LifePower4 batteries, even 6 kW of panels can overflow those on sunny days. Probably keep the two EG4 inverters, though I'd take a good, hard look at low-power efficiency. Halving the panel count could save $5k or so. You can always add them later if you need, but you may discover it makes more sense to invest that cash elsewhere.

 

[Karmagl]

The main system that I built is in our cabin at just under 9,000 ft in Colorado. Sun is not a problem. We are on a high plateau, so we don't get as much wind as you might. Even if we did, I don't think I would incorporate wind. It's noisy, and prone to breaking due to all the moving parts. Much better to use solar, and just invest a little extra for more panels and storage.

If you have no need for AC and have wood/propane for heat, you are pretty well set for solar, as you don't have loads that make it too hard. You didn't describe your cooking stove, but I assume that is (or can be) propane as well.

I'm curious where you are. In Colorado, "on top of a mountain" and "8,000 ft elevation" don't usually go together. I think the mountains start at around 10k ft!

Maybe its more of a large hill lol. Overlooking Granby Colorado. Good to know about wind.